“Buy-in” is one of those business catchphrases that is so overused, nobody seems to know what it really means anymore.

You already know it’s important for your employees to buy in to what your company is doing. But what does that really mean? We should start by calling buy-in what it really is: emotional engagement. And what is emotional engagement? It’s the “why” of your company and your people.

Entrepreneurs love success. For that matter, who doesn’t enjoy the feeling of making progress or overcoming challenges…or just simply winning?

Entrepreneurship is all about what’s possible – what we can create – or the boundaries that we feel compelled to push and expand.

But with success there comes the need to manage more people, satisfy more customers, and maintain more processes.

Business leaders have a lot to do. The number of tasks that need to get done keeps expanding, and as a result the To Do list grows and grows. Some people manage tasks through sticky notes, some use technology tools such as Asana or Trello, while others use hand-written lists of stuff they need to get done.

There are a lot of ways to manage tasks, but the majority of us are still overwhelmed by our To Do list.  Here’s what I experienced when I took the helm of running our 3rd generation family business.

This blog post was prompted by a December 2015 blog post from Seth Godin that I tucked away for inspiration, called, "Is it too little butter, or too much bread?" Here is the gist. When is the last time you complained about having too many resources in your business? Too many engineers, too many clients, too much revenue?

Let me guess. The answer is probably never. It is always the opposite. The engineering plan for this year to too expansive – we don’t have enough...fill in the blank – time, money, people. And so on.

You’ve read it many times before: Successful companies are built by great teams who create strong cultures of excellence. But if teamwork is so important, then why are there so many average and dysfunctional teams?

Great teams don’t just happen. They're built on strengthening relationships between team members – one day, one interaction at a time.

The bad news is there are hundreds of negative forces that sabotage team health – like egos, politics, power struggles, lack of vision, or poor leadership. The good news is that it’s entirely possible to overcome these forces.